Sunday, May 25, 2014

Response to “Why I love my Strict Chinese Mom”

Joseph Wu
A01
Response #9
Why I love my Strict Chinese Mom

I grew up in a strict Asian household where the stereotypical parenting happened. I had to play the violin and piano, couldn’t get lower than As, couldn’t play videogames and have high expectations placed on me. The biggest problem was that I was really unmotivated. I easily get excited to do something, but if it doesn’t have any variety or have any instant results, I would immediately get tired of it and try something else. This was what happened with school. I would be excited for the school year to start, and I would try my best, but after a while, it became monotonous and I would start to slack off. Rinse and repeat every year. My parents were definitely not pleased at this and they would be furious, but after several years of this happening, I got used to it. Obviously all the scolding and punishments would have a negative effect on my self-esteem. Also I wasn’t allowed to hang out with my friends and participate in activities unless it was going to help my admissions into college. This really made me socially awkward which didn’t help since I have social anxiety as well. During junior year and senior year in high school, I created a film and visual effects group with my friends so we would film movies and short films after school. This gave me a chance to be more sociable and getting used to meeting more people. I think after how hard they tried with me, they lowered their expectations of me. I was allowed to express my artistic and creative side more under one condition that I still go somewhere into the medical profession.
I don’t think that an extreme way of parenting would be good for the children, yet an extremely relaxed way isn’t the best either. I’ve seen kids that were restricted from doing anything when they were young, and when they finally got to college and experienced their first taste of freedom, they went all out and didn’t care about their studies. The opposite is just as bad as well. I think for parenting we need to find the happy medium that espouses the importance of trying hard and getting good grades, and allows the child to experience the adventures and experiences of being a kid. Will it be possible to have the child succeed through “Asian parenting” yet allow them to have fun once in a while? 



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